To the editor:

In their civics classes, American students are taught to value a healthy two-party system. Judging by his editorial “Election message” in the Nov. 4 issue, this lesson has been lost on the editor of the Journal-World.

Here, he bemoans Lawrence’s distinction as the only Kansas city to vote overwhelming Democratic in the recent election. We are, he says, “out of step with the rest of the state” and with the nation at large, which happened to elect a GOP majority in the House this time around. He goes on to suggest that some sort of city-wide malaise has resulted from this situation, even to the extent of getting in a gratuitous dig at our non-partisan City Commission!

We are, of course, awash in a sea of red. At election time, the waters may part to reveal, depending on one’s outlook, a glimmering blue swath of hope, or, as in the present case, a slim corridor of wishful thinking in Douglas County. In either event, the exercise of free judgment by voters is not to be disparaged, although one certainly may disagree with the outcome. And it may speak more highly of the community to be “out of step” with Kansas than to march in lockstep with a state considered in some quarters to be a public-policy disgrace.